Sundus Zia is a third-year medical student at the University of Saskatchewan. (Photo: Submitted)
Sundus Zia, a third-year medical student at the University of Saskatchewan, is investigating how artificial intelligence (AI) can play a role in medical education.
Based on a background in computer science, Zia recently led a research project examining how AI is implemented in the curriculum of undergraduate health science programs in Canada and the United States.
She presented her findings at an international conference on academic medicine in 2025 and a medical school-sponsored conference in June.
We reached out to Zia to learn more about her background, her research interests, and how her work with AI is affecting the medical curriculum of her undergraduate.
Before being accepted into medical school, she received her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Regina. The undergraduate course received the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Undergraduate Student Research Award, examining applications that use machine learning to predict the population within Saskatchewan.
I continued to pursue this interest as the president of the USASK Artificial Intelligence Students' Association (AIMS) in the School of Medicine and the President of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Medicine. It leads research projects across a range of AI applications in medicine, from curriculum to preventing physician burnout.
During my bachelor's degree I had a great professor who taught me some of the basic concepts of coding, and I happened to complete my research in machine learning and AI. At the time, artificial intelligence seemed very futuristic to me, so I was very excited about the opportunity to contribute! We were able to see some of the work that depends on developing machine learning algorithms and the data needed.
When I enrolled in medical school, I recognized the value that AI can bring to the field of medicine. I searched for ways that I could combine both the computer science chapters of my life and the medication chapters of my life that I had left behind.
After hearing about some of the jobs I had done in the field of artificial intelligence along with medicine, I met Dr. Scott Adams (MD, PhD) in the second semester of my first year in medicine. We discussed ideas for research projects, but what really led the conversation was that we still didn't know what kind of speciality I was interested in. I wanted to maintain my research relatively widely so that it could be applied to any field I pursued.
At the same time, Dr. Adams had begun a joint reading of the USASK AI Working Group. The topic raised at our conference, like students in all fields, is the importance of medical students and learned about the considerations associated with the application of AI and its use. However, AI is a new and ever-changing topic, so prioritizing what to include in the curriculum has been difficult.
As a result, my research project decided to explore what is included in the curriculum by other institutions teaching students in health vocations. The goal was to see if there were general themes informing us not only our curriculum, but also other institutional curriculums.
My research has already notified the curriculum by adding four hours of AI education to be implemented from the 2025/2026 academic year. Based on preliminary data from my research, I prioritized specific topics such as the ethical and legal implications of using AI, providing students with guided opportunities to use AI, and felt more comfortable as I moved to clinical practice. This was done to enable students to use AI in a deliberate and informed way that is consistent with their responsibilities as healthcare providers. This approach reflects what we were taught in the school-wide healthcare curriculum we consulted with.
We believe that starting early is better for students, so they have the skills that need to effectively use AI before being exposed to it. However, students are aware that they are at different stages and that people who are scribes, residing, and practicing may not be developing those skills. Therefore, there is no doubt that it will be a role in providing AI education at every stage of your career.
Having a discussion about the acceptable use of AI is extremely important to provide guidance to those who want to incorporate AI into their education, and as technology continues to evolve, these discussions need to continue. It is also essential to be open-minded about the benefits of AI. It's appealing to ban its use entirely, but it's better for people to encounter AI regardless of it and become proficient in using it. It is also beneficial to have a list of AI models examined by USASK to know that educators can trust the data being used.
I had the opportunity to present my workshop this June at the Research, Innovation and Education (RISE) Teacher Development Conference. Here we discussed the principles for incorporating AI into education, provided time to use those skills and ask questions that come to mind when learning about those principles.
From a preliminary view of the data to an approach to AI education, there was no clear difference across health professionals. The same topic is important in the healthcare field of ethics and applications in clinical practice, and is very similar in how students are taught using a combination of lectures and small group discussions. This makes sense to me as we all work together as different parts of the same team to achieve the same ultimate goal of patient care. So it makes sense that we also value things when it comes to using AI!
I loved this research and the opportunities that come with it. Most memorable is that submitting my research at the International Parliament on Academic Medicine (ICAM) to a packed room of people interested in learning about AI in medicine really encouraged me as it showed that my work is valuable not only at the University of Saskatchewan but across Canada. I want to encourage other institutions to include AI instruction in the healthcare professional curriculum.
Aside from the application of AI in education, I will explore ways that AI can help prevent doctors from burning out. In particular, it helps reduce the administrative burden of AI scribes and reduce the number of unnecessary referrals that experts receive in benign conditions using AI to use image recognition. With every project I complete, I wonder about other ways to incorporate AI. I'm sure I won't run out of ideas I explore in my research in the ever-changing field of AI!
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